MOSCOW—Sonic Duo, which has the third GSM license in Moscow, will finally start operating in the capital in late November under the Megafon trademark.
Besides Sonic Duo, the pan-Russian Megafon project also unites St. Petersburg-based North-Western GSM and six regional carriers. North-Western GSM is to switch to the Megafon trademark in the beginning of 2002.
Sonic Duo several times postponed the launch of its network in Moscow because of frequency problems. In August, it merged into the Megafon project and began servicing roamers in September. The carrier said it now accounts for some 8 percent of roamers in the Russian capital.
In the meantime, Sweden’s Telia said it eyes a bigger stake in the Megafon project. Telia chief Marianna Nivert said in Moscow that if the company gets a chance to buy more stock, it will undoubtedly do it.
The Megafon stock is currently divided among North-Western GSM (31.3 percent), two major Sonic Duo shareholders (Finnish Sonera with 26 percent and Russian CT-Mobile with 25.1 percent), Telia (8.1 percent), IPO Growth Fund (6.5 percent), St. Petersburg-based West-Link and Contact-C (3 percent each).
Russian wireless market experts predicted that Telia might buy Sonera’s stake in the project as the latter has been facing acute financial problems of late.
“I believe the stock of telecom companies will continue to fall in the coming months, and we shall be waiting for a favorable moment,” an unidentified Telia official told the Vedomosti newspaper.
